– San Fernando Valley Universal City Universal Studios is opening a theme park in suburban Beijing in 2019. The $3.3 billion project on 300 acres will be owned jointly by Beijing Shouhuan, a consortium of four Chinese state-owned companies, and Universal Parks & Resorts in Orlando, a division of NBCUniversal Inc. The project will mix Chinese-themed attractions with popular film character-based rides and exhibits found at the other Universal parks, including Harry Potter and Transformers, according to media reports. Universal currently owns and operates theme parks in Universal City and Orlando, and has licensing deals on parks in Japan and Singapore. Woodland Hills The South Valley Area Planning Commission denied an appeal against a planned mixed-use project at the former Los Angeles Daily News headquarters site, paving the way for the project to move forward. The development by Associated Estates of Richmond Heights, Ohio, was opposed by Mitch Carson, leader of Neighborhood Planning Support Inc., on grounds that the project did not adhere to the Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan. The 21221 Oxnard St. mixed-use development would feature a five-story, 379-unit apartment building, including 101 live-work units, in its first phase. Later construction calls for a nine-story, 71,000-square-foot office tower with ground-floor retail space. Sylmar The former chairman of the Los Angeles Mission College Foundation has been arrested and charged with stealing nearly $10,000 from the charity. Jose Luis Oliva, 37, was arrested and charged with one count of grand theft and forgery. He is free on $20,000 bail. The foundation raises money for Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar. The L.A. District Attorney’s Office alleges that between June 2012 and January 2013 Oliva, then chairman of the foundation, wrote three checks to “cash” totaling $9,956 and deposited them in his account. Prosecutors allege Oliva forged the signature of another foundation member on one check. Oliva is scheduled for arraignment Nov. 12. Tarzana Construction has begun on Ventana Medical Plaza, an 112,500-square-foot medical office project in Tarzana. The four-story building on the northwest corner of Ventura Boulevard and Lindley Avenue is being developed by TriStar Realty Group LLC of Pacoima and is expected to be completed in 2016. It will feature a pharmacy and a parking structure with valet parking, and is 70 percent preleased. The 2.5-acre project broke ground this month. It received a $32.3 million construction loan from a national bank and a Hong Kong-based lending institution. Sun Valley Athens Services has opened a $50 million recycling center in Sun Valley that will bring more than 100 jobs to the San Fernando Valley. The center will process more than 1,500 tons of garbage a day from residents and businesses in greater Los Angeles and separate paper, plastic, aluminum and other recyclable material using optical sensors. The 80,000-square-foot center features a 200-kilowatt solar installation, an electric-vehicle charging station and bicycle racks. It is located at 11151 Pendelton St. in an industrial neighborhood. Athens employs more than 1,100 workers and has facilities in Pacoima, Sylmar, City of Industry, Irwindale, Montebello and Victorville. Pacoima Gravity Defyer Corp. has settled its trademark infringement suit against Under Armour Inc. for use of the name “G Defy.” The Pacoima company makes athletic shoes that sell under the brands Gravity Defyer and G-Defy. Under Armour sells shoes that feature Micro G foam and packaging that includes the words G Defy, according to a federal complaint filed in March 2013. The suit alleged the Baltimore, Md. sports apparel and accessories maker was trading on Gravity Defyer’s goodwill and that its packaging would likely cause confusion among consumers. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Sherman Oaks A Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council committee decided to seek changes to a $100 million mixed-use project slated for the site of Sunkist’s headquarters. The committee will soon appoint members to work with the developer, IMT Capital Inc. in Sherman Oaks. IMT is proposing 208 one-bedroom and 98 two-bedroom apartments on the 8.3 acre property at . The 320,000-square-foot development also would include 40,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. Some of the issues revolved around IMT not assigning any parking for trucks, which would make it difficult for accommodating commercial deliveries. Burbank Walt Disney Co. announced a proposed $1.25 billion investment in its struggling Euro Disney operation and the Disneyland Paris theme park. In a two-sentence statement, the Burbank entertainment company said the recapitalization plan will improve Euro Disney’s financial position. Disney owns 40 percent of Euro Disney, with the rest owned by shareholders in Euro Disney S.C.A. Saudi Arabian prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns 10 percent of the park through his Riyadh investment firm, Kingdom Holding Co., agreed to the deal. Disneyland Paris opened in 1992 and has struggled financially for much of the time since then. In 2012, Disney refinanced about $1.6 billion in debt for Euro Disney. Calabasas DTS Inc. is entering into an alliance with LG Electronics Inc. to supply its audio technology for the Korean company’s home-entertainment products. The Calabasas company will incorporate its high-definition decoder into televisions, audio-video receivers and digital-media players made by LG. The DTS-HD decoder was designed to play the audio of streaming content and is compatible with older formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. LG Electronics, a unit of Seoul-based LG Corp., is the world’s second-largest maker of LCD, or liquid-crystal-display, televisions. – Conejo Valley Camarillo Physpeed Co. Ltd., in Camarillo, was acquired by semiconductor maker MaxLinear Inc. in a deal valued at $11 million. Physpeed makes integrated circuits for high-speed data centers, and optical-networking and telecommunication-equipment manufacturers. MaxLinear, based in Carlsbad, makes semiconductors for the cable and satellite-broadband communications markets. The merger agreement provides for earn-outs of up to $750,000 to Physpeed shareholders if certain revenue milestones are reached next year and in 2016. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the acquisition, which is expected to close by the end of the year. Cool Planet Energy Systems has opened a plant in Camarillo to manufacture an additive to improve crop yields while using less water and fertilizer. The biofuels startup moved its headquarters from Camarillo to a Denver suburb last year. The company said that field trials of its CoolTerra additive resulted in a 56 percent increase in strawberry production and a 40 percent decrease in fertilizer use, and a 50 percent reduction in water use in turf grass trials with a municipality. The company did not say how many workers it expected to employ at the Camarillo plant. Thousand Oaks Teledyne Technologies Inc. has received a $10 million contract from the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office to supply devices used to predict human influences on the ocean. The five-year contract was given to Teledyne Webb Research, in North Falmouth, Mass., for autonomous profiling explorer floats. Parent Teledyne Technologies is based in Thousand Oaks. The autonomous floats are used to measure temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrient content at different ocean depths. That data is used to develop climate and weather prediction models and understand human influence on the ocean ecosystem. – Around the Valleys To be considered for publication, submissions should be emailed to [email protected]. Please put ATV in the subject line. For more information, call (818) 316-3123.